ICC Prosecutor Names Two Darfur Suspects

The international community is taking some steps to punish perputrators of the Darfur genocide... just not many.

inthenews.co.uk:

The international criminal court (ICC) has named two men wanted for trial in relation to war crimes committed in Sudan's Darfur conflict Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo named Sudan's humanitarian affairs minister, Ahmed Haroun, and Ali Kosheib, Janjaweed leader, as chief suspects of war crimes against humanity in Darfur.

The conflict in the region, described by the US as genocide, is between the Janjaweed militia group and the mainly land-tilling tribes of the region, who think Khartoum has neglected their interests for years.

The Sudanese government is widely believed to offer financial support to Janjaweed gunmen and has even assisted in attacks with the militant group.

I guess this is easier than sending troops or taking real measures to prevent further killing. At least it is something and acknowledges the plight of the victims in Darfur but I doubt that there will be a case that leads to anything more than a conviction in absentia without any means of enforcing the sentencing as those convicted afford themselves of the Sudanese government's protection.

Ain't Gonna Play On Saturday

Israel Insider reports:

Saturday afternoon soccer could become a thing of the past as Knesset Members presented Israel Football Association (IFA) heads with a petition to move games to weekdays.

IFA Chairman Itzhak Menahem and Secretary-General Haim Zimmer met with MK Uri Ariel (National Union-National Religious Party) and MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz-Yahad) Sunday to discuss the possibility of holding all of the Israeli leagues' matches on weekdays as to include the religious public in the sport.

Role of Israeli Supreme Court Being Challenged

JPost:

Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann announced on Sunday he will present a bill next week restricting the power of the High Court of Justice to nullify Knesset legislation which violates the Basic Law: Human Freedom and Dignity and the Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation.

Friedmann made the announcement during a meeting of the Ministerial Legislation Committee which determines the government's policy towards bills proposed by government ministries and private MKs.

Sunday's meeting included a discussion on two private member's bills dealing with the currently unrestricted right of the High Court to nullify legislation which it regards as violating statutory human rights.

According to a proposal by Labor MK Ophir Paz-Pines, it would require a panel of nine justices to nullify a Knesset law. The second proposal, initiated by Estherina Tartman (Israel Beiteinu,) prohibited the court from nullifying Knesset legislation altogether.

Ha’aretz (article 1):

The justice minister has declared his support for the Canadian model of judicial authority to strike down laws. According to the model, courts have the right to invalidate parliamentary legislation if they view it as impinging on human rights protected by the constitution, but the parliament has the authority to revise the legislation after the court ruling, thereby renewing the law's validity. The revised legislation can generally be passed in ordinary legislative proceedings, and must explicitly state that it applies despite what is written in the constitution.
…

The proposed Basic Law expressly described the judiciary's authority in overturning legislation, saying that only an expanded panel of nine Supreme Court justices could do so. The Canadian model, by contrast, allows all Canadian federal courts to strike down laws. The Canadian model also allows an overturned law to be reinstated with only one round of voting, as opposed to the proposed Basic Law, which requires the law be reinstated by a 61-MK majority in three rounds of voting, or a 70-MK majority in each round once a certain amount of time has passed.

Proposing that the legislature have such power would be an anathema in the United States where power is suppose to be balanced in three coequal branches government in order to protect citizens from the government and from the majority that from time to time may want to take away their rights. However, part of the problem is that Israel has no actual constitution.

It seems as though many Knesset members, including Labor Chairman Amir Peretz, are equally concerned by Friedmann’s proposal as are members of the Israeli legal community.

Ha’aretz (article 2):

Professor Uriel Procaccia, one of Israel's senior jurists, on Tuesday called on Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann to backtrack on his initiative to limit the High Court of Justice's constitutional authority.Procaccia, who heads the masters of law program at Herzliya's Interdisciplinary Center, wrote in a statement released Tuesday that, "Human rights advocates in Israel must join forces against Friedmann's initiative to curtail the High Court of Justice's constitutional authority."Procaccia added that, "The American Congress does not feel undermined by the courts' authority to proclaim a law passed in Congress unconstitutional. This is the law in many enlightened countries throughout the world."

NY Attorney Ad Rules part 2

A brief in support of a preliminary injunction has been filed in the case challenging the Amendments to Rules Governing Lawyer Advertising, I wrote about earlier this month.

The new rules are restrictive of websites if they are upheld will likely cause problems for New York lawyers who blog and add great restrictions to both speech that would be considered to be advertising and speech that would not.

A quick glance at the brief's index shows it raises the following points:

ARGUMENT...........6

I.The Amended Rules Unconstitutionally Restrict the Right of Lawyers to Advertise.........7

A. The Amendments Are Not Supported by Any Legitimate State Interest...............8

B. The Amendments Are Not Narrowly Drawn............12

C. The Amendments Are Not Supported by Any Evidence..............14

D. The Amendments Are Unconstitutionally Vague................15

II. The Amended Rules Unconstitutionally Restrict Access by New York Consumers to Information About Their Legal Rights and Available Legal Services. ..................17

A. Consumers Are Injured By Restrictions on Lawyer Communications..................17

B. The Amendments Unconstitutionally Restrict Consumers’ Access to Commercial Communications................19

C. The Amendments Restrict Consumers’ Access to Information About Their Constitutional Rights by Restricting Noncommercial Communications...............21

Ali G Sued Again!

Hat tip to Mobius at Jew School.

This time however, it is by someone he wasn’t interviewing but rather someone he met on a Jewish youth group, Habonim, trip to Israel.

Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen is being sued by a British woman who claims he called her a "bitch" and a "minger" in an Ali G sketch.

The comedian also falsely said he got her pregnant as he interviewed novelist Gore Vidal for a show broadcast in 2004, the woman's lawsuit alleges.

She says she met the star 20 years ago on a trip to Israel with Jewish youth group Habonim, but that they never engaged in any sexual activity and "over time they went their separate ways".

But in August 2004 friends told her they had heard her name mentioned by the Ali G character, who allegedly said: "Me used to go out with this bitch called Heddi Cundle."

The suit, filed in Los Angeles this month, accused Sacha of saying the woman was a "minger" and that "once me got her pregnant me said all right, laters, that is it".

[Full article a Metro.co.uk]

Wiesel’s Suspected Attacker in Need of Mental Help

The lawyer of Eric Hunt, the man accused of attack Elie Wiesel in a San Francisco hotel, is claiming his client is in need of mental help. A New Jersey judge denied having hunt transferred to a mental health facility or to release Hunt on bail.

Hunt’s lawyer has also claimed that his client has not shown any violent or antisemitic tendencies.

When he had accosted Wiesel in the hotel, Hunt had been hoping to pry a confession from Wiesel that Wiesel had fabricated his story as a Holocaust survivor.

Hunt was caught after admitting in a post on an antisemitic Australian website that he had attacked Wiesel and the reason for his attack. [story at Ha’aretz]

Clearly, Hunt is a disturbed man in need of counseling but that does not necessarily mean he is not culpable for his actions or that his mental problems amount to a proper psychiatric defense. It is also ridiculous to place any value on his lawyer’s stated ascertain that Hunt has not displayed violent or antisemitic tendencies. As his advocate and being untrained in psychiatry, his lawyer is simply doing his job to spin Hunt’s story as best he can.

The police seem not to deserve much credit in tracking Hunt down as his posted confession couldn’t have made it much easier to discover his identity.

Punitive Damages in Philip Morris Case Get Overturned

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that it is unconstitutional to award punitive damages in order to punish a company for the harm it has inflicted on people not party to the lawsuit.

The court did not rule that the $79.5 million punitive award against the company was unconstitutionally excessive but rather that awarding damages based on harm done to non-parties would be an unconstitutional government seizure of private party.

Ruling otherwise would have put defendants in danger of having to pay out multiple times for the same injuries and would have been unfair even to big tobacco.